Phobias

• Type of anxiety disorder
• Strong fear of something that has little or no actual danger
• Common Phobias
  • Heights
  • Spiders
  • Small Spaces (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/phobias.html)
• Signs and Symptoms
  • Avoiding everyday activities
  • Panic attacks
  • Aprehension
  • Anxiety
  • Difficulty breathing
  • Chest pain
  • Sweating
  • Dizziness
  • Churning stomach
  • Feelings of death
  • Feeling of intense need to escape (http://helpguide.org/mental/phobia_symptoms_types_treatment.htm#signs)
• Cause
  • Past life experiences
  • Heredity
    • Common in families
  • Environment
  • Stress
• General Public Perception
  • There is a fine line between fears and phobias and many people miscategorize them
  • Two to three times more women suffer from phobias than men
  • Famous people have phobias
    • Johnny Depp & P. Diddy are both afraid of clowns
    • Tyra Banks is afraid of dolphins
• Treatments
  • Therapy
  • Support groups
  • Exposure
    • gradually facing your fears
  • Learning relaxation techniques
  • Medication
    • Anti-Depressents
    • Anti-Anxiety
• Relation to other Disorders
  • Anxiety
  • Panic attacks
• Examples of Phobias
  • Agorophobia-fear of open, crowded spaces or leaving a safe place
  • Cathisophobia-fear of sittingPanophobia-fear of everything
  • Phobophobia-fear of phobias
  • Xenoglossophobia-fear of foreign languages
    • Intense anxiety when faced with unfamiliar speech and writing
    • Traced back to racism
  • Zemmiphobia-fear of the great mole rat

Sources
Perspectives On Diseases & Disorders: Phobias


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Lauren Hallowell & Rudi Laudenslager